Salo: Or the 120 Days of Sodom Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Year:  1976
Country: Italy
Language: Italian

Salo: Or the 120 Days of Sodom is easily the most disturbing film I have seen, both emotionally and visually. It was the first part of director Pier Paolo Pasolini's Trilogy of Death which was intended as a complementary to his previous Trilogy of Life (The Decameron, Arabian Nights and The Canterbury Tales) but unfortunately he was murdered before the two other films could be completed. Often called shocking and pornographic, this film and its message is often shrouded in controversy. I usually dismiss films with this level of depravity, calling them merely "torture porn". However I cannot do this with Salo because it has an important political message about the dangers of living in a facist society.

Pier Paolo Pasolini's first and only induction into his Trilogy of Death  is set in a Nazi controlled, Northern Italian State of Salo in 1944. The film is about a group of rich Fascists who kidnap a group of 18 youngsters, allowing only physically perfect specimens to stay, and subject them to various forms of mental, physical and sexual torture over the next 120 Days. The torture starts off in a sexual nature--Sodomy, rape, humiliation and so on-- and slowly degrades and descends into mental and physical torture.

 First of all, this film made me realize how absolutely disgusting it is to make extreme horror and violence into entertainment. Saw is a prime example of this, we are watching people being tortured for what? There is no important message that the film is trying to convey. It is shock for the sake of shock. Unfortunately it isn't even realistic violence. The violence and horror of the film is shown very realistically in Salo: Or the 120 Days of Sodom and that it why it is in no way meant for entertainment purposes. Unfortunately a lot of sick people don't care for the message it presents and see it just because it has shock value.

While watching this film it is quite clear on what Pasolini's views toward his country that at one time supported the evil Nazi Regime. He hated Mussolini and was absolutely disgusted by fascism. This whole flm shows the evil that Fascism induces. He felt that that particular ideology worshiped power for it's own sake. It is a blunt warning about how far humanity can fall and a powerful message about the nature of power when in the wrong hands. It is a film that makes you disgusted, but also angry at the people who let this slide by. It is important not to forget, because forgetting or ignoring  the evils of the past allow it to manifest itself in the future.

In conclusion, I'm not exactly sure how to rate this film. It is incredibly important in terms of politics and history, but it not a film I would watch again nor would I show to anybody I know. I am greatly impressed that it does show violence for what is (disgusting, repulsive) instead of glorifying it for entertainment purposes like so many Hollywood films do. Praise it! 4/5